(Agrimoney) – US farmers have started apace on winter wheat plantings – where they can, with a slow start to corn combining keeping Corn Belt growers on the back foot.
The first US Department of Agriculture reading of the season on progress of domestic winter wheat plantings showed 12% complete as of Sunday, a touch above the average of 11% by then.
However, analysis of the statistics shows some divide in fortunes between row crop states, where growers, and land, are still tied up with harvesting and those which have a clear run at getting winter wheat in the ground.
‘Planting in full swing’
Farmers in Oklahoma – a minor corn- and soybean-growing state, but the second-biggest winter wheat grower – had 14% of their winter wheat seeded, more than twice as much as normal by now.
“Small grain planting was in full swing last week,” USDA scouts said, adding that sowings of canola were “well ahead” too, at 7% already seeded at a time when farmers have not usually begun seedings.
In Idaho, where dry weather allowed most growers to finish cereals harvesting, they have 19% of winter wheat planted, 6 points ahead of the normal pace.
In neighbouring Montana too they were ahead, by 7 points at 23% complete – although only after giving up on much of their spring wheat crop, thanks to harvest rains which have slowed harvesting and hurt quality, if providing good seed beds for winter grains.
USDA scouts reported that “sprouting was occurring in all wheat crops and some producers could end up grazing what remains unharvested”.
‘Hampering corn harvest’
However, in Corn Belt states such as Illinois, Ohio and Missouri – growers of the soft red winter wheat traded in Chicago – sowings have yet to start, albeit with plenty of the sowing window still open, and plantings only usually only just registering by now.
There farmers face a slower-than-normal start to the corn harvest, a reflection of a cool and wet summer which, while supportive of strong yields, has slowed crop development, with continued rains presenting a more immediate challenge too.
In Illinois, where corn harvest was 2% finished compared with the typical 11%, “rainfall and very cool temperatures occurred throughout the state last week, hampering corn harvest advancement”, USDA scouts said.
Average rainfall in the state, at 2.30 inches was 60% above normal, while the average temperature of 59.8 degrees Fahrenheit was 9.2 degrees Fahrenheit below normal.
The proportion of corn rated as “mature” was 37% as of Sunday, compared with the 50% expected at this time of year.
‘Corn moisture high’
In neighbouring Missouri, where harvesting was 12% finished compared the average of 26% by now, “corn harvest was hampered in the northern districts where the largest rainfall accumulations occurred”, scouts said.
“Rainfall and cool temperatures occurred throughout the state last week,” with the average temperature of 70.6 degrees, 7.5 degrees below normal.
Scouts in Kentucky, where farmers had 20% of their corn in the barn, 14 points behind normal, said that “recent rainfall has caused corn moisture to be high and harvesting to proceed slowly”.
On maturity, the corn crop in Iowa, the top growing state, was the most behind, at 19%, compared with a typical 44%.
“Average temperatures for the week were below normal, slowing crop development,” scouts said, adding that “frost was reported across much of the state but caused little damage”.
